SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In his latest bid to place himself among world leaders confronting the United States, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to China on Tuesday aboard his trademark green armored train, an aging symbol of his family’s dynastic rule that he has used for past foreign trips to break out of diplomatic isolation.
North Korean state media published a photo of Kim smiling broadly while talking with his Foreign Minister, Choe Son Hui, in one of the train’s luxurious meeting rooms,
furnished with yellow-brown desks, leather chairs and curtains with golden knots.
Another photo showed him smoking a cigarette outside a carriage marked with a golden state seal, reminiscent of a smoking break he took on the train to Vietnam in 2019 for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, though his sister wasn’t there this time to hold a crystal ashtray for him.
Here is a closer look at Kim’s private train, a relic inherited from previous North Korean leaders, and other ways he chooses to travel.
Kim’s heavily fortified train, which he last used on a 2023 trip for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reportedly travels no faster than about 60 kph (37 mph), making his trip to Beijing a day-long journey.
Kim is among 26 foreign leaders invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping to a massive military parade on Wednesday marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s fight against Japan’s wartime aggressions.
Kim is likely to stand alongside Xi and Putin on the rostrum at Tiananmen Square, according to South Korea’s main spy agency, creating a symbolic image of the countries’ Cold War-era solidarity that will allow Kim to interact with other world leaders as he seeks to further expand his diplomatic footing.
The train was a signature mode of transport for Kim’s famously flight-averse father, Kim Jong Il, who made roughly a dozen trips abroad during his 17-year rule, almost all to China and all by train. He was traveling by train when he died of a heart attack in 2011, according to North Korean state media.
In a 2002 account, Russian official Konstantin Pulikovsky recounted accompanying Kim Jong ll on a three-week trip to Moscow. The train carried cases of expensive French wine and passengers could feast on fresh lobster and pork barbeque, he said.
Train travel also was part of a heavy focus on security.
Kim Jong Il had several trains equipped with reception halls, conference rooms, high-tech communication equipment and flat-screen televisions. To guard against possible attacks, his train reportedly traveled with two other trains, one running in advance of his vehicle to check the safety of the rail line while another carried security agents and followed behind, according to South Korean media reports.
During an active stretch of diplomacy in 2018 and 2019, Kim Jong Un used the family’s armored train for some of his meetings with Putin, Xi and Trump during the U.S. leader's first term.
Unlike his father, Kim Jong Un occasionally has used planes to travel across North Korea and abroad.
When he jetted to the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian in May 2018 for a summit with Xi, Kim Jong Un became the first North Korean leader to have gone abroad by air since his grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung flew to the Soviet Union in 1986.
In June 2018, Kim Jong Un borrowed a Chinese plane for his first meeting with Trump in Singapore, reportedly because his jet was deemed unsafe. In 2019, for another summit with Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, Kim took his train on a two-and-half day trip.
Kim’s official plane is a remodeled version of the Soviet-made IL-62. North Korea calls it “Chammae-1,” named after the goshawk, the country’s national bird. South Korean media reported Kim’s plane can carry about 200 people and has a maximum range of about 9,200 kilometers (5,700 miles) but reportedly has never flown that far.
Kim also has used the airplane to review air force planes taking part in combat aeronautics contests and inspect construction work in Pyongyang.
Kim has a collection of foreign-made, luxury cars that are believed to have been smuggled into his country in breach of United Nations sanctions.
During his visit to Russia in 2023, he travelled between meeting sites in a Maybach limousine that was transported using one of his special train carriages. During an earlier Russia trip in 2019, Kim had two limos waiting for him at Vladivostok station including a Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Maybach S62.
Kim reportedly used the S600 Pullman Guard in Singapore and Hanoi during his summits with Trump. In 2024, Putin gifted Kim a luxury Russian-made Aurus Senat limousine.
Kim also has white horses that he and his family often ride in propaganda-driven events meant to bolster public support of their rule. In late 2019, North Korea’s state media published photos showing Kim riding a white horse to a sacred mountain on two occasions, months after the collapse of his Hanoi meeting with Trump.
When Kim and his preteen daughter reviewed a military parade featuring ceremonial cavalry unit members riding white horses in 2023, state television described one of the animals as “most beloved” by the girl, believed by South Korean intelligence authorities to be Kim’s likely heir apparent.
